Fleming Square
Fleming Square – was named after Sir George Fleming of Rydal, Bishop of Carlisle and father of Mary Senhouse, after whom Maryport was named. Markets were held on a Friday, when local farmers would bring their produce by cart and pony to sell. A centre-covered market was built in 1875 and fitted out with stalls for butter, eggs and meat; outside in the square vegetables were sold. Fleming Square was a busy place in the 1920s and 1930s. Twice a year a fair took place in the square. In 1929 a Menagerie visited the square. A photograph in the book ‘Maryport: The Town that Refused to Die’ by Herbert and Mary Jackson shows two men in cloth caps and a group of boys in knee-length trousers walking along as a camel is tied up by a truck. Beneath it is a photograph of a group of young boys looking on as they walk past an elephant. Mary says she ‘vaguely remembers going to see the animals and the crowd they attracted, but there wasn’t a circus connected with it.’
